Oddly, now that we are back to school and are doing fewer social outings, I seem to have less time to blog. So, I have once again let myself get over a week behind. Bad blogger!

Last weekend was a happily puttery one, which was fitting for a puttery week. Saturday (the 18th) I went for a 16-mile run with Jason, and we ran a northern section of the Towpath that I rarely run. It was pretty, and I feel as if we clipped along at a good pace. The marathon is now (as of today) less than two weeks away, and I feel pretty good about it.

After the run, I went home and showered. It was Mer’s day, so after she got ready, we headed north to Brecksville, where Mer took me to a fairly large family-run restaurant called Coco’s. The food was pretty good and very welcome (it was 1:00 by the time we sat down to eat). After we finished our brunch, Mer took me to the nearby Brecksville Reservation, which is a pretty big Cleveland Metropark. We were quite a bit south of Cleveland, but they take caer of parks over quite a wide area.

We entered the park near a very pretty waterfall and small gorge. We spent several minutes watching the water, and then Mer wanted to take a leisurely walk along a path in the woods that joined up with a trail that led to a scenic overlook a little over a mile away. The walk in the woods was pleasant, with the gorge and stream running alongside it for a good ways. Once we joined up with the other trail, the path climbed pretty steeply, and then ran along a ridge where the path was only a few feet wide. We did make it to the overlook, but at this time of year it was pretty obscured by the leaves on the trees. We both agreed it would be a pretty spot later in the fall when the leaves thinned out some. We sat on a bench at the overlook for several minutes, and then headed back down the trail until we came to a road. Mer had some evening plans, so we walked along the roadside path for a less scenic but more direct path back to the car. Along the way we saw a couple of skateboarders using the road as a speed run, since it was a good-sized hill to go down. They had a chase vehicle behind them to keep them from being overtaken by other cars. They must have had some measure of skill since the speed was pretty impressive.

We got back to the car and headed home for a short bit. Then, we headed a short distance over to Bob Evans, where we met up with our colleagues Chrissy and Dave Kamp. I was delighted – I like Dave and Chrissy quite a bit, and we rarely get to hang out with them. Dave and Chrissy had invited us out, and Mer had accepted. Bob Evans has lots of hearty food, so that aspect of the meal was fine. But the real joy was getting to chat with Dave and Chrissy. They are leading a trip to Space Camp for J-term, and that seems to have come together very well. We also talked some about our J-term trip to London and how that is coming, and generally had a very nice meal. After we said goodbye to the Kamps, we headed home.

Mer had no elaborate evening plans; she wanted to watch a movie. So, we watched the first two hours of a three-hour adaptation of Sense and Sensibility that was very good. The actress playing the woman with sense did a marvelous job. She had amazing control over her face and body language, and often was able to show complex emotions playing across her features. It was a delightful way to end the evening.

Sunday (the 19th), we headed over to Aunt Mary’s to give her a hand with some projects associated with moving into her new house over the summer. First things first, though – we went to Dairy Queen for lunch. I love going anywhere where I can get ice cream as my main meal’s “drink.” After lunch, I helped Aunt Mary organize her garage while Mer graded. We made good progress, and made good use of the new shelves I had put together the week before.

We finished the day with typical Sunday chores – I cleaned and cooked while listening to football on the internet. Mer graded and cooked her lunches for the week. I made some frosted brownies to give away and later delivered them, and we finished up the third part of Sense and Sensibility while eating supper.